


Overdue

by Serinah



Category: Marvel, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types, The Avengers - Ambiguous Fandom
Genre: Alternate Universe - No Powers, Booty Calls, But not explicit, Clint Barton Bingo, Clint is aerialist, First Meetings, Fuckbuddies, IronHawk - Freeform, M/M, Meet-Cute, Oblivious Clint Barton, Pining, Tony is businessman, square: kindness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-06
Updated: 2019-11-06
Packaged: 2021-01-24 00:20:56
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,878
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21329119
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Serinah/pseuds/Serinah
Summary: He pushed Stark away.“Sorry, bro, still not that kind of professional,” Clint tried, joking breathlessly.“Yeah?” There was laughter in Stark’s voice as if not realizing that Clint meant it as an actual rejection. “What about if I ask you to come up as a friend? I can show you the view.”Clint snorted. “The view of what?”"The Persian rugs and silk sheets?"Clint laughed.He went.Damn it all to hell.***This is my pining IronHawk story where Clint meets a celebrity Tony.A fill for a Clint Barton Bingo square: kindness.Thank you: Celticas, Ruquas and Loran. <3ILY guys!
Relationships: Clint Barton/Tony Stark
Comments: 24
Kudos: 114
Collections: Clint Barton Bingo





	Overdue

** _For months_ **

It had been happening for over four months now. Tony and him sleeping together. It started simple: Clint was being awesome on a job; Tony had been there. One clumsy accident and then another. Flirting. It would have been fine if it had been just drinks and a dance, but Tony smiled at him and for some stupid reason, Clint’s heart had said: yes, that one! Tony’s smile was kind, was the thing. It was just as rakish and charming as on TV, but in person he also came off as genuinely caring and the longer Clint knew him, the surer he became that the callous but lovable asshole he displayed to the media was a lot less real than the soft part of his personality Tony was so desperately trying to hide.

** _The show_ **

It was nearing midnight when he saw Tony Stark in the flesh for the first time. Clint and his partner, Lynnie, were peeking from behind the narrow door of the gallery that was slit open just enough to see the people dancing two floors below. The private party was being held at a grand mansion with high ceilings, luxurious furniture, and lots of room for a dance floor. The guests were all equally rich and ridiculous. By now, the women in designer gowns had mostly lost their fake gloss of perfection and many men in their high-end tuxedos had discarded their jackets. In Tony Stark’s case, he might’ve not even had one in the first place if Clint had to guess. Even from the distance, the collar of Stark’s open shirt just seemed wrong.

He looked delicious otherwise; mixing charleston moves with rock’n’roll at the front of the stage with (if Clint wasn’t mistaken) Janet van Dyne. They looked magnificent together and Clint felt a stirring in his blood. He hadn’t known that Stark could dance like that.

Clint’s costume was a dark green sleeveless unitard with silver swirls. It looked good under the bright projectors but not under the regular light. Clint felt like a clown.

Well, it wasn’t like he had to stay after the performance or anything.

When the opening notes to their performance came on and the lights changed, Lynnie, her blond hair contrasting with the green of her costume, grinned at him.

“I’d say break a leg but in your case, it’s ‘don’t stub your toe on a matchstick’ or something,” she said, grinning.

“And you’d mean it literally. I know.”

He grinned back and gave her a thumbs-up as she started her routine by gliding down the silk and doing slow twists and turns to match the mood of the music.

Two paces later Clint stepped off the ledge and dropped down the silk, going significantly quicker than his partner and passing her, moving to match the faster underlying rhythm.

People gasped.

He didn’t actually hear it and the projector lights were too bright for him to see the slack mouths, but he knew how the audience reacted to this entrance. For five paces Lynnie and he matched their movements and then she dropped to his level while he slowed down to meet her.

The middle part of the performance was the easiest; he knew he could trust Lynnie to do her part and he caught her every time she reached for him.

They finished by leaping to the ground past each other from the height of almost seven feet and landing gracefully into each other’s arms. They froze in a pose, the light blinked out and then on again for them to take their bows. Normally, this was where the lights would go dark again and they’d leave the stage undetected, but this time the replacement technician mixed something up and the projectors cut off into the regular low light like before the show.

“I’m gonna kill him,” Lynnie muttered while still smiling.

“I’ll help,” Clint replied and they set off straight through the party-goers. There was an aisle between the seats but since everything was now out in the open it would have felt silly to dash past in three seconds.

Keep smiling, Clint told himself. “Thank you,” he said on one occasion and another and people generally let them pass with only applause and a pat on the back. Staring straight ahead at the point of his salvation, the door, Clint kept telling himself that they were almost there. Almost there, almost-

He should’ve glanced at the floor once in a while instead because in a second, Clint’s feet were in the air, his body tipping back, and he was grabbing at anything to stay upright.

He landed. “Ow!”

Stockinged feet on a slippery floor, how appropriate. He opened his eyes to look at the man who Clint had grabbed and was now sprawled on top of him.

“Hi,” said the man, still grinning.

Clint gaped.

“Close your mouth, so I can kiss it, gorgeous,” Tony Stark said.

"I'm not that kind of performer," Clint replied breaking out in a goofy smile, his stupid hands moving to grab Stark’s hips only to miscalculate and land on the sides of a round butt instead.

"Yeah? And what kind of performer are you?"

Stark started getting up while putting his hands on Clint’s pecs, then an arm and a shoulder. When his knee brushed Clint’s hip, his hands squeezed Stark’s butt. Stark flashed him a grin and got up, dislodging Clint’s hands.

“You saw what I do, right?”

Clint allowed Stark to pull him up and unwilling to resist, towards the dance floor.

“Oh, yeah, I certainly saw  _ that._” Stark smirked. 

__

__

** _The kiss_ **

__

Clint knew it was a mistake as soon as his lips touched Stark’s, but then it was kinda too late? The kiss was in progress, their skin was touching and his tongue was in Stark’s mouth. There were fingers in Clint's hair, tugging gently, caressing his scalp. Clint moaned. He had to shut it down but the whole string of actions was threatening to pull him in yet again. This shouldn’t be happening. Not again. Clint had promised himself, no casual sex, no sex at work. And definitely no trying to score in the pool of rich and famous where everyone was out of his league anyway. It never worked out, dammit!

__

He pushed Stark away.

__

“Sorry, bro, still not that kind of professional,” Clint tried, joking breathlessly.

__

“Yeah?” There was laughter in Stark’s voice as if not realizing that Clint meant it as an actual rejection. “What about if I ask you to come up as a friend? I can show you the view.”

__

Clint snorted. “The view of what?”

__

"The Persian rugs and silk sheets?"

__

Clint laughed.

__

He went.

__

Damn it all to hell.

__

__

** _Juggle_ **

__

In retrospect, it was Clint’s own doing that got him stuck in this beautiful spider web that was Tony Stark’s charm. It had felt amazing to bask in Stark’s attention and Clint was low maintenance, a meal, a bed, some dicking, and good-bye cuddles; that’s all he needed.

__

At first.

__

"Told you, I'm not that kind of performer," Clint had told Stark when presented with a box with a beautiful dark purple G-string in it.

__

"What kind are you then?" Stark asked, managing to sound lewd and genuinely interested at the same time.

__

They’d been sitting close, Stark’s arm hanging over Clint's shoulders, his fingers on Clint’s skin, his eyes warm and inviting.

__

"Well…" Clint started but thinking was difficult.

__

"Well…?" Stark prompted.

__

"I could juggle?" Clint said innocently.

__

Stark's grin widened. "Juggle with what?"

__

And what Stark needed turned out to be simple too. Sex, Clint could easily provide _ . _

__

__

** _Busy_ **

__

“I’m sorry, Tony. I’m busy tonight.” It was taking everything in Clint to say no. He should hang up… But that was even harder. Soon, there would be no reason for him to even hear Tony’s voice unless it was on TV, and that thought hurt.

__

“Oh, come on!” Tony said. “What are you even doing? Polishing your shooter?”

__

There was a cheerful leer in his voice and reflexively, Clint almost told him where he’d like to aim his shooter, but-

__

“I’m working.” It wasn’t even a lie, he was planning to practice a new sequence at the gym. He didn’t have to do it tonight, but he would.

__

“Again? It’s the third time you’ve blown me off.”

__

Clint closed his eyes.

__

“I thought being a professional meant you were already good at what you do?” Tony whined gamely.

__

There it was again, an invitation for a flirt and... 

__

“Goodbye, Tony.”

__

Clint couldn’t.

__

__

** _Aw, heart, no!_ **

__

The week dragged on. Clint worked, visited his favorite dive bar to play darts and emptied the pockets of those who dared to be too assholey in the bar where Clint frequented.

__

Tony didn’t call.

__

Aw, heart, no. Shut up!

__

There hadn’t been any news in the yellow press lately, so Clint was scrolling through Tony’s messages on his phone. Again. He was such an idiot. There wasn’t much significant content, just a ton of memes that Tony had sent him whenever he was bored. Clint knew that the pictures of what Tony had been doing at the lab or stupidly pompous buildings he had to visit for work weren’t exactly signs of undying devotion, but he could have messaged anyone and he’d chosen Clint. That had to mean  _ something _ , Clint told himself.

__

Obviously it hadn’t, because now that Clint had refused sex, Tony had stopped sending them.

__

Apparently, they weren’t even friends.

__

Shit.

__

__

** _Vacation anyone?_ **

__

Three weeks after the last phone call, Clint was just exiting the gym when a sleek new Audi stopped in front of him with a screech.

__

“Hey, Hawkeye!” Tony called out from the lowered front passenger window. “Wanna go on vacation with me? I’ll even let you choose the destination! You name it, I’ll make it happen, gorgeous!”

__

Dumbfounded, Clint stared.

__

“On a vacation? Now?”

__

“Yeah! Now! When else? Your local tour just ended and you are free for the next four weeks before the next one starts, I checked!”

__

An unnamed dark fury started roiling in Clint’s gut.

__

“You… checked?”

__

Tony grinned unrepentantly. “Come on, don’t tell me you don’t want some relaxation on the beach, beautiful cabana boys serving at your hand and foot?”

__

“I’m not your fucking play-thing, Stark.”

__

“Ouch.” Tony winced but it didn’t seem as if he was actually taking Clint any more seriously.

__

“Are you drunk?” Clint roared. “Are you actually drinking and driving right now?”

__

Tony said something, but Clint wasn’t listening. Instead, he gripped the handles of his sports bag tighter and stormed over to the driver’s side of the car.

__

“Move over,” he growled.

__

Tony grinned lopsidedly and scrambled over to the passenger seat.

__

Clint got in and, staring straight ahead, started driving.

__

“So where would you like to go, gorgeous?” Tony started babbling. “Hawaii, that’s overdone, right? Everyone’s been there. I have a private island in the Carribean. Would that work? Or do you want somewhere with people? A prime tourism area? We can do Europe! I’m sometimes not even recognized in-”

__

“Shut. Up.” Clint was livid. The more he listened to that obnoxious self-absorbed ass, the more Clint hated himself for- “Just shut the fuck up!”

__

Before Tony had any chance to say anything else, Clint sped up and--

__

“Jesus Christ, Barton! What...

__

\--started single-mindedly rallying past all the other vehicles.

__

“-the hell are you doing?”

__

Clint didn’t answer. He drove past a large mall complex, turned into its parking lot and slammed on the breaks.

__

"Why are we stopping here?"

__

Clint didn't answer. Hands still on the steering wheel, he wished he could get out and just be somewhere high, with a bird-eye view and wind in his hair. What the hell had he even been thinking? Driving Tony home? What for? He could've just taken his keys and called him a cab. Or let him crash his car, what did Clint care?

__

No. Knowing his luck, Tony would have killed an innocent bystander while walking away without a scratch himself. If that wasn’t the reverse of Clint's previous experiences with romantic relationships, he didn’t know what was. He glanced at Tony. Case in point.

__

“Clint?”

__

Tony had finally fallen silent and was now looking unusually timid. They stared at each other, Tony’s eyes searching.

__

“You’re not that drunk, are you?”

__

Tony looked away. “I drove.”

__

“I’m glad you’re not a total moron.”

__

Tony shrugged, not rising to the bait.

__

"You shouldn’t’ve come," Clint said.

__

Shoving his hands into his pockets, he found a coin and tossed it in the air a couple of times.

__

Staring at the flipping coin, Tony shrugged. "I just wanted to invite you. You don't have to come if you don't want to."

__

"I don't," Clint lied.

__

"Yeah, okay."

__

Tony sounded entirely unsurprised and Clint wanted to hug him. But unless postcoital, they didn’t do that and Clint was supposed to be mad at him anyway. He bounced the coin off the steering wheel and caught it in his other hand.

__

"I should go," he said.

__

Aw, no. Now it was him that needed a taxi. He looked around at where they were. Or he could walk. Clint hit the coin against the dead center of Tony's windshield.

__

It cracked.

__

"Shit!" Way to lose all moral superiority. Jesus fuck, Clint. “I thought it was reinforced!” he said with accusation in his voice.

__

"That's okay.” Tony shook his head. “I don't care about that.”

__

‘I didn’t know it would break!’ a little boy's voice in Clint’s head stuttered. Just like always, his intentions didn’t matter. Nor his feelings. “You never do, not about anything,” he said bitingly. Internally, he cringed.

__

“Oh fuck you!” Tony bit off. “What? Because I’m rich and smart I can’t have feelings? We’ve been flirting for over four months! I’ve asked you out several times but you treat it as a booty call every time! I’m not complaining about the sex, the sex’s been great, don’t get me wrong, but you’ve never even tried to see it as more and still I’m here, begging for scraps like a pathetic… You know what? I’m done. Get out of my car!”

__

__

** _Not that kind_ **

__

Clint sat, dumbfounded.

__

“You wanted it to be more?” he asked, turning to look at Tony. “Why?”

__

“Yeah. Why indeed.” Tony gave a short bitter laugh. “No idea honestly. Because I’m a dumbass that doesn't know when to back off?”

__

The corner of Clint’s mouth twitched. “Yeah, but you are my kind of dumbass.”

__

Tony’s eyes flitted back to Clint’s. “Yeah?”

__

“Yeah, dumbass.”

__

Playing along, Tony jerked back. “Who are you calling a dumbass, you birdbrain?”

__

“The dumbass who I’d be happy to take out one of these days or maybe even go on a dumbass vacation with them.”

__

For a moment Tony just stared at Clint. His eyes were astonished and full of tentative hope. Clint swallowed heavily. The corners of his mouth twitched and he pinged the coin off Tony’s shoulder, caught it and grinned winningly. His heart was in his throat and he was desperately hoping he wasn’t just seeing what he wanted to see, like that time he had totally embarrassed himself with three dozen roses in a bucket that ended up decorating his own head.

__

“Might even forgo the sex just to make it clear it’s not all this is for me,” Clint said, cursing himself for promising something so stupid.

__

It was totally worth it though to see Tony’s gorgeous eyes lit up in mirth and happiness.

__

“Yeah?”

__

“I’d totally do abstinence penance for a year if that’s what you wanted,” Clint vowed.

__

“You would do that?” Tony asked, an edge of curiosity and a lot of incredulity to his tone.

__

Clint’s eyes narrowed. “Only if you stop looking so tempting.”

__

Tony’s face scrunched up adorably in mock thought. “Yeah? No.” He shook his head. “Nope. Not a chance.” He moved closer. “I might go for exclusivity, though. How about that?”

__

“Is that a fancy drink?” Clint moved closer too. “You know I don’t do big words.”

__

“Didn’t you just use abstinence penance?”

__

“Nope,” Clint denied. “Wasn’t me. Now shut up and kiss me.”

__

Tony started laughing, but Clint just closed the last few inches between them and touched his lips to Tony’s. Like an idiot that he was, Clint went to cup Tony’s face with the coin still in his hand but managed to throw it on the dashboard at the last moment.

__

Tony made a soft noise and parted his lips. His hands grabbed at Clint’s shirt and he pulled him closer. It was like falling back onto the soft air, knowing that you would be caught. Familiar but always thrilling.

__

Tony.

__

Tony.

__

_ Tony. _

__

Forcefully, Clint pulled away, needing to see if Tony really wanted this. If Tony really wanted  _ him... _

__

He tried to find the truth in Tony’s eyes but there was no definitive answer. The mix of desperate hope, desire, fondness, and even more questions he found there felt as if his own insecurity was reflected right back at him.

__

“Will you teach me all the fancy words you know?” Clint asked.

__

What looked like helpless affection blossomed on Tony’s face.

__

“I’m not that kind of professional.”

__

__

_ **THE END** _

__

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading!  
Leave me love? :)


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